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Julie L. Spieker

Julie L. Spieker is an Intellectual Property Attorney in the Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group as well as the Mechanical and Electrical Practice Group. Julie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University. She then worked in the semiconductor manufacturing industry doing research and development and process integration.

Julie attended Drake University Law School as a Dwight D. Opperman Scholar and graduated in 2019 with highest honors, Order of the Coif. While a member of the Drake University Law Review, Julie was awarded the Jeff Gilbert Memorial Writing Award.

  • Biotechnology Patents
  • Chemical Patents
  • Electrical Patents
  • Mechanical Patents
  • Software & Business Methods Patents
  • Academic Research and Technology Transfer
  • Advanced Manufacturing
  • Agritech
  • Chemistry, Material Sciences, and Nanotechnology
  • Consumer Products and Technology
  • Fluid Mechanics & Thermal Physics
  • Food and Beverage Technologies
  • Medical Devices
  • Pharma and Nutra
  • Plant Breeding and Plant-Related Technology

Professional Associations

American Bar Association

Iowa Intellectual Property Law Association

Iowa State Bar Association

Polk County Bar Association

AUTM (FKA, Association of University Technology Managers)

Education

Drake University Law School, J.D., with High Honors, May 2019

Iowa State University, B.S., Chemical Engineering, Dec. 1998

Publications & Presentations

โ€œNew Type of Dummy Layout Pattern to Control ILD Etch Rateโ€ Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, Vol. 6798 (2007).

โ€œIP Post-Brexit: What Does the โ€˜FEUtureโ€™ Hold?โ€, Filewrapper (www.ipmvs.com), Nov. 6 2019.

Bar and Court Admissions

Iowa State Bar, 2019

United States Patent and Trademark Office, 2019

Awards and Recognition

Drake University, Deanโ€™s List (all semesters)

Drake University, Order of the Coif

Drake University, Dwight D. Opperman Scholarship

ALI Excellence for the Future Award โ€“ Family Law

CALI Excellence for the Future Award โ€“ Wills and Trusts

CALI Excellence for the Future Award โ€“ Copyright Law

Drake Law Review, Jeff Gilbert Memorial Writing Award recipient

Drake Law Review, Junior Staff

Drake University, 2017 First Year Oral Argument (FYOA) โ€“ Finalist

Iowa State University, Omega Chi Epsilon

Iowa State University, Golden Key National Honorary Society

Iowa State University, Alpha Lambda Delta

Iowa State University, Phi Eta Sigma

 

The Onion Buys Alex Jonesโ€™ Infowars in Bankruptcy Auction

Yesterday, Global Tetrahedron, the corporation that owns the satirical news website The Onion, was the winning bidder for Alex Jonesโ€™ Infowars at a Chapter 7 bankruptcy auction. Jones and Infowars owner Free Speech Systems both filed for bankruptcy in 2022 after eight families impacted by the Sandy Hook shooting won a $1.4 billion defamation award [โ€ฆ]

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Taco Tuesday Trademark Battle is Over

The Gregory Hotel, Inc. in New Jersey โ€“  the last holdout in the Taco Tuesday trademark dispute โ€“ has voluntarily surrendered its trademark registration. Last May, Taco Bell filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel a trademark for Taco Tuesday that rival chain Taco Johnโ€™s, and the Gregory Hotel, [โ€ฆ]

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Taco Tuesday is for Everyone!

Taco Johnโ€™s has surrendered its Taco Tuesday trademark. As we reported in May, Taco Bell filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel a trademark for Taco Tuesday that rival chain Taco Johnโ€™s had held since 1989. Along with the petition, Taco Bell launched a nationwide public relations campaign for [โ€ฆ]

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Taco Tuesday Trademark Tiff Gets Spicy

Taco Bell recently launched an ad campaign featuring LeBron James and the censored phrase Taco T***day. In a commercial, Lebron repeatedly attempts to say the phrase โ€œTaco Tuesday,โ€ but the โ€œTuesdayโ€ is consistently bleeped out. He then helpfully explains that thereโ€™s a trademark on Taco Tuesday and therefore it cannot be used in a commercial, [โ€ฆ]

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OMG Dolls v. OMG Girlz Ends in Mistrial

On January 25, 2023, a trial between rapper T.I. and doll maker MGA Entertainment Inc. ended in a mistrial after the judge determined that improper testimony regarding cultural appropriation was โ€œincurably prejudicialโ€ to the jury. In December 2020, MGA Entertainment sued Clifford T.I. Harris, his wife Temeka โ€œTinyโ€ Harris, and OMG Girlz seeking a Declaratory [โ€ฆ]

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US Supreme Court Agrees to Review Patent Enablement Case

Last Friday, the Supreme Court accepted Amgenโ€™s request to review Section 112 of the Patent Act and consider how much a patent specification must disclose to meet enablement requirements. Specifically, the Court will review whether a patent must disclose enough information for the skilled artisan to โ€œreach the full scopeโ€ of the claims, or whether [โ€ฆ]

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Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech for Patent Infringement Related to COVID-19 Vaccines

On Friday Moderna issued a news release stating that the company is filing complaints in both the United States and Germany alleging that Pfizer and BioNTechโ€™s COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnatyยฎ) infringes three of Modernaโ€™s patents. The patents at issue are US Patent Nos 10,898574, 10,702,600, and 10,933,127. The patents cover Modernaโ€™s mRNA technology that Moderna say [โ€ฆ]

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Federal Circuit Vacates $2.75 Billion Ruling Against Cisco Because Judgeโ€™s Spouse Owned $5,000 of Cisco Stock

Today, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a decision holding that Cisco willfully infringed several patents owned by Centripetal Networks, Inc. The District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia had awarded enhanced damages and royalties exceeding $2.75 billion to Centripetal. The Federal Circuit held that the district court judge was disqualified [โ€ฆ]

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China joins WIPOโ€™s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs Effective May 5, 2022

Earlier this month, the World Intellectual Property Organization (โ€œWIPOโ€) announced that China has joined WIPOโ€™s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs effective May 5, 2022. An industrial design is a form of intellectual property that protects the ornamental or visual features of an article not related to its functionality. In general, to [โ€ฆ]

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Two New ex Parte Trademark Cancellation Proceedings

On December 18, 2021, new regulations implementing the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (โ€œthe TMAโ€) will officially go into effect allowing individuals, businesses, and the USPTO to clear unused registered trademarks from the federal trademark register. New ex parte expungement and reexamination proceedings are said to provide a faster, more efficient, and less expensive alternative [โ€ฆ]

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US Copyright Office Issues Best Practices to Reduce Unclaimed Royalties

As directed by the Music Modernization Act (โ€œMMAโ€), on Thursday, July 8, 2021, the US Copyright Office (the โ€œOfficeโ€) released a public report to recommend best practices for the Mechanical Licensing Collective (โ€œMLCโ€) to effectively match copyright owners with unclaimed royalties for musical works, and ultimately reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties. Unclaimed royalties are [โ€ฆ]

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Clearly using โ€œclearโ€ for Non-Transparent Goods is Deceptively Misdescriptive.

Dolce Vita Footware, Inc. sought registration of the mark CLEAR for various bags, purses, wallets, and card cases โ€“ excluding transparent goods. The Examiner refused registration on the grounds that it is deceptively misdescriptive and on April 29, 2021 the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the โ€œTTABโ€) affirmed. In its original registration, Dolce Vita identified [โ€ฆ]

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Federal Circuit Revives SynQor Patent

On February 22, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Boardโ€™s decision that SynQorโ€™s US Patent No. 7,072,190 was unpatentable. SynQorโ€™s โ€˜190 patent relates to technology that converts DC current from one voltage to another for use in large computer systems and data communication equipment. [โ€ฆ]

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โ€œNakedโ€ at the Federal Circuit

On December 4, 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (โ€œFederal Circuitโ€) denied petitions by Naked TM, LLC for a panel rehearing and a rehearing en banc of the decision in Australian Therapeutics Supplies Pty. Ltd. v. Naked TM, LLC, 965 F.3D 1370 (Fed. Cir. 2020). The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board [โ€ฆ]

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Federal Circuit Reinstates Patent Claims Previously Found Obvious by Patent Trial and Appeal Board

On July 31, 2020, in the precedential opinion Alacritech, Inc. v. Intel Corp., the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (hereinafter the โ€œFederal Circuitโ€) reinstated three claims of Alacritechโ€™s patent, holding that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (hereinafter the โ€œBoardโ€) did not adequately support its finding that the asserted prior art [โ€ฆ]

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Dropboxโ€™s Patents Invalidated for Patent-Ineligible Subject Matter

On June 19, 2020 The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (hereinafter the โ€œFederal Circuitโ€) affirmed a district courtโ€™s ruling that Dropboxโ€™s three patents claim abstract ideas and further provide no inventive concept transforming the abstract idea into patentable subject matter. Dropbox and their wholly owned subsidiary, Orcinus Holdings, (hereinafter referred to [โ€ฆ]

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Fish Hook Claims Canโ€™t Catch a Patent

On April 24, 2020, The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (โ€œCAFCโ€) held that claims concerning a method for fishing, specifically that of selecting a fishing hook based on observed water conditions, are directed to an abstract idea. According to 35 U.S.C. ยง 101, โ€œ[w]homever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, [โ€ฆ]

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UK to Back Out of the UPC

Last year, this blog brought news of the impending Brexit vote and the supposed impact of Brexit on intellectual property laws in the UK. Brexit was thought to have largely no effect on patent law because European and UK patents are governed by the European Patent Convention (EPC) which is a non-EU agreement. Further, the European Patent [โ€ฆ]

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Federal Circuit Clarifies Standard for Determining Nexus Between Claims and Secondary Considerations

On December 18, 2019, in Fox Factory, Inc. v. SRAM, LLC, the Federal Circuit (the โ€œCourtโ€) vacated and remanded the Patent Appeal Boardโ€™s (the โ€œBoardโ€) obviousness determination. Fox challenged SRAMโ€™s patent for bicycle chain rings in an inter partes review. The Court found that the Board applied the wrong standard for determining whether or not challenged [โ€ฆ]

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IP Post-Brexit: What Does the โ€œFEUtureโ€ hold?

On December 12, the United Kingdom (UK) will hold a general election, in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to secure a clear majority so as not to lose the prospect of Brexit after failing to leave the European Union (EU) by the end of October as previously promised. Currently, Johnson enjoys a healthy lead [โ€ฆ]

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